Beware the darkness

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- Hey, who are you? - Steve asked, looking at the man standing nearby.

The guy was in the forest, where he went to pick mushrooms, and at one point, completely by chance, he saw an unknown person, who was half hidden by the trunk of an oak tree. It was as if he was hiding from Steve and did not want to be noticed. However, he had a keen eye and hearing.

- What are you doing here? - the guy asked again, looking at the stranger, but not daring to approach him.

This man looked very strange. Strange, calm and mysterious. And these bright eyes seemed to suck Steve in, not letting him look away. This scared and strained him more and more with each passing second, and the stranger remained silent and remained silent, and did not react. "Damn... Something is not right with me. Somehow... I did not want to make contact with such a strange... creature," Steve thought fearfully, "I should try to leave." He took a step back, then another step, and another, until he had moved far enough away to leave the forest altogether. Well, that was the closest he had come to contact with this unknown guy who looked suspiciously like Steve himself. "Well, apparently no mushrooms today," the guy thought, looking at a couple of mushrooms lying inside the basket, "Oh, okay. I'll make beetroot soup. That's also a good thing."

Every time Steve went outside his house, the unknown guy would appear somewhere nearby and watch him. Watched him as he cleaned the garden, as he chopped down trees, even as he dug in the mine. "I don't understand why he's watching me but not coming closer?" Steve thought one day, walking through the mine, "Is he afraid or something? Pfft, no way," he smiled slightly, looking at the ceiling in front of him, "Judging by his fast movement, it's me who should be afraid of him, not him of me. “Well, I’ve been here for a while now. What time is it?” Steve took his watch out of his inventory and was horrified. “D-damn it… The sun will set soon, and I’ve wasted all my torches! Gotta get back! Home!” He ran through the cave as fast as he could, carefully stepping on the rocks so as not to fall. Having finally reached the surface, the guy realized that he was too late. It was already pitch dark outside. The only thing that was visible was the dim light of the lanterns in the distance in his house. “Well… okay. I don’t really feel like spending the night here, so…” Steve sighed and looked at his inventory. “Aha! A lantern. Hooray! I’m saved! I hope…” He put the pickaxe back in his inventory, held the lantern out in front of him, sighed, and stepped into the darkness, hoping that this dim light would protect him. Steve moved at a half-run, trying to look only ahead of himself, at the slowly approaching light of his house, as his only salvation, and thought only about the routine, so as not to let his mind go blank. The light of the lantern fell on the grass and trees, periodically casting their shadows. In these poorly visible silhouettes, Steve seemed to see monsters a couple of times, which he did not pay any attention to, afraid to stop. Everything was going well, but only up to half the way. When Steve already thought that he had succeeded and was happily looking at the nearby house, the lantern in his hand suddenly began to slowly go out. The guy looked at it in surprise, not understanding why the fire was going out, but at the same time he quickened his pace. At that moment, the chain also began to heat up, which almost made Steve drop his only source of light, albeit weak. However, he held the flashlight and simply transferred it from one hand to the other, running the rest of the way like that, then threw it to the ground and ran into the house, slamming the door behind him, and then rolled down it to the floor. His fingers burned a little from the burns, and questions were spinning in his head: “How did the flashlight suddenly start to go out?”, “Why was the chain heating up?”, “Are those silhouettes he saw real?”. He didn’t feel very good about what he had experienced, but he was glad that he had overcome this small test and remained alive and well. Although the latter is worth thinking about. After all, literally the next day, Steve began to feel a strange fear of light and did not want to be at home. He really wanted to go to a dark place and sit there, but he did not allow himself to do this. After all, once upon a time, when this darkness had just appeared, it caught him on the street during his next trip. And the next day he had the same symptoms as now. Coincidence? Obviously not. True, that day it was more difficult to fight the furious desire to go into the darkness, because the weather was clear and clean. Today it was cloudy, so it was not so hard to tolerate the light. “Oh, well, here I am, I’ll have to fight myself again,” Steve thought angrily, walking into the oak grove with an axe in his hand, “I just got cured, and now I’ll have to overcome myself again. I’m so tired of this… I just want to give up… No. I shouldn’t. I’ll hold on until the last! Yes! As long as I have light, I’ll go on,” Steve took a deep breath, feeling a small surge of strength, and his anger subsided slightly, “I just need to take more torches with me.” The guy began chopping down trees left and right, trying to get rid of the feelings and desires tormenting him, as well as the rest of his anger. Finally, somewhere after the fiftieth tree, Steve got tired and stopped, wiping the sweat from his hand, and then bent down to catch his breath. He was already feeling better, but the desire to go into the darkness had not gone away, which did not suit him. It seemed like he should do some gardening. That should help. Steve raised his head and saw a stranger with white, but already brighter burning eyes. His sudden appearance frightened the guy, causing him to shudder and take a step back: "It's him again. We need to try to leave, like last time." As soon as Steve wanted to do this, something strange suddenly began to happen to him: circles swam before his eyes, his blood pressure noticeably increased, his legs became weak, and his eyes began to stick together. In the end, the guy could not stand it and fell, losing consciousness. Steve woke up lying in the same clearing where he had chopped down trees. He lay there for a few seconds with a completely empty head, trying to remember how he got there and what happened at all, and then slowly sat up: “What... happened? Why can’t I remember anything?” He rubbed his forehead, and then it dawned on him, “White eyes. I remembered.” At that moment, a couple of drops of rain fell on Steve’s hand, which forced him to return to reality and go home as quickly as possible. After all, he didn’t really want to get wet. During the walk home, thoughts about what happened went away, but later they again captured him from head to toe. The guy was sitting by the window, looking out. Drops of rain monotonously knocked on the square roof, on the window, on the porch, pleasantly echoing in his head, bringing peace and tranquility. Strangely, Steve noticed now that he no longer felt that strong desire to hide in the darkness. And it wasn’t that difficult to be in the house. “Does this mean he helped me? — he thought, — Hmm... but why... I think I should ask him the next time we meet. Ah, I hope it happens again." Steve was tormented by doubt and impatience. On the one hand, he wanted to see again the one who helped him feel better. And on the other, who knows, maybe this unknown person helped him on purpose, in order to lure him into a trap later? "Next time I need to prepare. I need to take a shield and a sword. And maybe armor would be nice too... Yeah, I need to prepare": Steve thought, after which he got up and began to rummage through the chests.

The next meeting took place literally the next day in the evening. The guy was frying potatoes as usual, when suddenly he noticed glowing eyes in the distance, near the forest. Steve decided to see what this stranger would do if he did nothing. He grabbed the log he was sitting on with his hands, staring intently at the stranger. However, nothing happened. Then the guy calmed down a little and looked away at the potatoes, and then looked at the forest again. He was getting closer! Then Steve couldn't stand it any longer, he jumped up, not having the patience to sit any longer, and shouted, drawing his sword, frowning:

- Who are you? Why are you here?

No answer. Instead, the figure began to approach with each blink. This scared the guy, and he ran into the house, locking the door, then pulled out the sword, hiding behind the partition, behind which he had a bed. Silence. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Nobody. Then Steve gathered all his will into a fist and decided to come out of hiding and see what was going on. Suddenly this someone left, and the potatoes could burn (yes, potatoes are sacred). He slowly approached the door, holding the sword in front of him with both hands, and abruptly opened it towards himself, after which for a moment he saw himself standing on the threshold with white eyes, looking right at him. Steve saw him only for a moment, but that was enough for his whole body to freeze in fear. The stranger, as soon as the guy opened the door, instantly touched his forehead, causing him to lose consciousness. Steve woke up lying on the floor. The back of his head hurt a lot, and his body felt weak. He sat up slowly, rubbing the sore spot and looked around. There was an iron sword lying nearby, the door was open, and the smell of something burning hung in the air. Not right away, but Steve managed to remember what had happened to him: “He... again... I lost consciousness again. Why is this... Why is he doing this? I don’t understand... - anxiety began to take hold of him, - What if he’s turning me into some kind of monster this way? What if he’s killing me so slowly??? What if...?! - then he shook his head, trying to calm himself down, - So, Steve, calm down. You don’t know anything, but... you feel. And you feel visibly better."